A week ago, my good friend, Libby (who lived in Paris, lucky girl) was in NYC for her 30th birthday. I had the honor of attending her birthday dinner at Lupa.

Lupa is a Roman style Italian trattoria, which I found utterly charming and completely inspirational. Since Libby is a long time vegetarian, veggies were the highlight of what we ate. For starters we shared butternut squash, beets and brussels sprouts, all prepared in a new (to me) and really, really delicious way.
Libby also had a dish made of farro pasta with (more!) brussels sprouts. It was kind of a revelation to me. I had never combined a vegetable like that with pasta before and suddenly I had a use for the sad head of savoy cabbage that had been sitting in my fridge!

I put water on to boil and caramelized some onions in olive oil with red pepper flakes. Once the pasta (I used whole wheat because I couldn't find farro pasta) was in, I put the finely sliced cabbage in the pan with the onions and let it cook. Pasta comes out, goes into that pan along with a really, really healthy bunch of grated Parmesan cheese and a little of the pasta water itself. Prego! A late winter pasta dish to get you through that last push. Spring awaits!

Ah, but there's more to all this Italian talk than last night's dinner. I, my dears, and going to Tuscany!!!!!! I leave on April 11th for ten (count them, ten) days!!!!!! I have never been to Italy before and am blessed enough to be staying in a friend's digs in the countryside for free.

I have NO IDEA what I need to do or see while I'm there. I'll have access to a car, so if anyone can recommend sights to see or a good guide book or can't miss experiences, please leave a comment!!! Grazie!!

I saved these roses from what was going to be a long, sad, lonely death in our flower refrigerator at work and stashed them in what is my new favorite Winter-Spring transitional handbag.

It's actually a tool bag from Klein Tools, but I loved the unbleached, heavy-weight canvas and metal and leather buckles, so I ordered one. They also have some all leather bags with which I am only mildly obsessed. They're pretty reasonable and oh, so sturdy! And I only feel a little silly carrying it when I run into one of the many construction workers buying their morning coffee at the corner bodega.

(I was so smitten with the roses/bag combo that I didn't even notice the tacky ad for laser hair removal on the newspaper that I used to wrap them up. Nice.)

These are two pillows that I finished well over a year ago. They were meant to go in my old apartment, which was all 70's fabulous orange, brown and avocado green.

Now they just don't fit in my new place so off to the Etsy shop they go!
(These photos were taken on my new ivory velvet love seat! I absolutely am in love with it! It fits perfectly under the window in the front of the living room. Some people {ahem} think it was a crazy choice, but I don't care).

I still owe you pictures of the Minnow Cardi, but in the meantime, I started a new project. It's the Christie Bolero that I designed for The Point, ages ago.
I always wanted one of my own, so in an attempt to plow through some of my stash, I cast on with some Harmony from Naturally Hand Knit that I've been holding onto forever.
It's a smaller gauge than the original pattern and I'm also planning on making it slightly larger so that it can crossover in the front with a button closure.
I'll keep you updated!